Deep in the forests of
“Holly…Holly…Was that the last?”
“Yes, I believe so.” Holly whispered.
“How many males and females?” asked the male wolf?
Holly chuckled. “Keep your tail on, Lightning. There are three males and one female.”
“What about names for them?” Lightning panted enthusiastically.
“Well, the female is the smallest, but has a small white spot on her chest, while the rest of her is black. Star is very appropriate. One looks like your grandsire, Storm, so that should be a good name. The dappled male is to be Rain. Finally, I think that the largest should be Thunder, for he looks very like you but for a white face and a white chest.”
“Hey, Lightning, are the pups born yet?” A new voice hailed the couple.
“Yes, come and meet them, everyone,” called Lightning. Several wolves awoke at the exchange of words. They swarmed around the den and Lightning held his head proudly as his pack expressed their admiration by yipping excitedly and making comments on their Alpha’s first litter.
“My, my! Four is an awful lot of pups for an early litter!”
“Aye, but they’re all strong and healthy by the smell of it.”
“I’d bet a whole bull moose that little one will be the smartest.”
“That’s true; runts get all the brains, though she’s not really that small.”
A gray and tan wolf with a white patch on his chest pushed his way through the crowd to reach Lightning’s side and parted his mouth, put back his ears, and raised his tail in a respectful, yet complicated, salute. He had the same large and lean structure as Lightning and the same distinctive, tawny, gold eyes.
Nudging Lightning playfully, he remarked, “So, your first litter is born. How does feel to be a father?” Lightning nudged right back and nearly toppled the other wolf over.
“Wonderful,” he replied. “How does it feel to be an uncle, Gale?”
Gale screwed up his face. “Painful. You nudge way too hard, brother. Near gave me a bruise, so you did. Maybe that’s why you’re the Alpha and I’m just the lowly Beta.” Lightning eyed him suspiciously.
“A bruise? I hardly tapped you. And if you think that a Beta is lowly, then your brain has gone bad. It’s a very exalted position, and if you don’t appreciate it then I’ll give it to Owl, so there.”
Gale widened his eyes and backed off hastily, nearly bumping into one of the other wolves. “Er- don’t be hasty now. I mean, where would we be if you died and Owl became Alpha?” Gale shivered and shot Owl, a tawny expressionless wolf with like an owl, a glare. “I’d be the Omega, or worse, kicked out of the Pack. He’ll never forgive me for beating him in that fight to be Beta after you became the Alpha.” Lightning nodded sagely.
“You’re right. Do you think it’s about time to announce the pups?”
“I’d say so. You know, having the first litter of the season is supposed to be good luck. I wonder if that’s true.”
“We were in the first litter in our time, and we turned out all right, I’d say. Really, wolves just say that because the first litter grows up faster, which will give that pack a slight advantage in a territorial battle. It has nothing to do with luck,” Lightning tilted his head then threw it back and tossed his message into the brightening sky with a melodious yet blood chilling cry.
“I, Lightning, Alpha of the Forest Pack, call upon all the Packs of the
“We of the Stone Pack are listening, and I, Smoke, will hear your news,” and a chorus howled after the first call, “The Stone Pack hears you.”
Howls from the third pack answered, “We of the Plain Pack answer your call and I, Tempest, am listening.”
The howls of the Plain Pack moaned and whistled like wind on the grassy plains where they lived, and the Stone Pack had voices that were rough and grating, like a piece of granite on slate. The Forest Pack answered in echoing deep voices that spoke of happiness, joy, and four healthy pups.
“We have pups, strong healthy pups, and we howl our joy to the sky! Thunder, Storm, Rain, and Star they are our pups! Let us, O Packs of Fire Mountain, howl to the sky and welcome them!” Then the three Packs howled together, “Thunder! Storm! Rain! Star! We, Packs of Fire Mountain, welcome you to the world. Oooooooooooohhhh!” The packs formed a haunting harmony on the final note and held it until the very ground seemed to shake and all the creatures within miles stopped what they were doing as the wolf song washed over them and sent chills of fear and excitement through their spines.
The ritual completed, Lightning lowered his head and counted the number of voices in the other Packs. He could hear ten wolves in the Plain Pack and eleven in the Stone Pack. Lightning always kept a careful count of the other Packs, noting if one sounded weaker, or another stronger, incase the need to attack arose. Now it is time to find meat for Holly, he thought, She’ll probably be hungry after her labor. “All right, that’s done,” He gazed fondly at his mate in her den, “Rose, I want you to stay here with Owl and watch over Holly, in case any foxes have smelt her blood. I smell game not far from here.”
“Yea, let’s go!”
“We hunt tonight!”
As the pack loped off, the impassive owl and Rose, a wolf that looked remarkably like Holly, broke off from the main body and settled themselves on either side of the den. Holly watched them go until she could no longer see them. She sighed and settled down for a nap.
Her dreams were full of flashing fur and bared teeth. Suddenly, all was calm. She saw her father, now long dead, and he said, “Lightning strikes, Thunder booms, and Rain falls down, as Storm rages on. On the night that the stars fall, the white wolf will come and Thunder must beware the kin of the kin of Fire. The kin of Moon must beware the daughter of Sun.”
A flash of light, an earsplitting bang, and a beautiful white wolf stood on the very top of the
Then she was in a box of some sort of hard shiny web with several of the strange two-legged creatures that the packs called Strangers, that she had seen a couple of times patrolling her territory surrounding the box, but these were different. They had white fur instead of green and one had a fire-stick pointing at her. Its paw twitched and the stick growled suddenly at her as she felt a searing pain in her shoulder. She turned and looked at her shoulder and saw a sharp feather sticking in the snow white patch of fur. Suddenly, Holly remembered that she usually had a black patch on this shoulder. She craned her head and glanced at her back and saw that she was all white! She began to feel sleepy, so sleepy; she just couldn’t keep her eyes open.
Holly awoke with a jolt as a twig snapped in the distance. She was thinking hard trying to remember what her dream had been about when her mate called out to her, “Holly we’ve got food!” Holly shook herself. Dreams are just imaginary, she told herself firmly, they don’t matter. Yet, somehow she couldn’t shake the feeling that something in her dream had been important, but all she could recall was a jumble of white fur and mournful howling. Thunder the pup whimpered in his sleep and snuggled in closer to his littermates. Holly gave him a lick and stood up to go eat.
She glanced over her shoulder one last time as she exited the den. As she turned back toward the sunlight a voice she recognized as her father’s whispered in her ear, “…Thunder must beware…” Holly jumped and gazed franticly around the den. The Alpha female suppressed a shiver of unease as she climbed out of the den. As she stood blinking in the sunlight, Holly scolded herself. It was just your imagination, Holly, that’s all, she told herself over and over.
Back in the den, Thunder too had heard Holly’s father’s voice, but he did not know what the words meant, being only a pup. He lay down back to sleep, not knowing he was destined for greatness or that so many troubles would stand in his path. So he slept an innocent sleep of a young pup.